a. Social:

The society suffers from so much internal problems that are often overlooked. These are mainly shifts in ethics and moral reflected by increased practicing, and tolerance of, social ills such as:

a. Wrong is right, and right is wrong
b. Being untruthful
c. Cheating
d. Being unclear, vague and ambiguous
e. Disrespect for others
f. Selfishness
g. Lack of loyalty to the society and the nation, even hating the society and the country
h. Greediness
i. Envy of others who have wealth, or other assets
j. much more...
These social ills have been on the increase in the last decades, and more noticable to those of us who live abroad when visiting and seeing the marked changes...

b. Political:

There is stagnation in the political scene. The current president has been there for 20 years, and still going. There is no real way where real opposition can be established. The parliment is a sorry excuse for a joke. Elections are not real, and do not reflect what people want. There is lots of exclusion of various factions from the political process using various means of intimidation, rigging, ...etc. Emergency law has been in effect for 20 years, and together with State Security Courts (MA7AKEM AMN EL DAWLA) is used to silence opposition.

c. Media:

The government controls almost all media. All broadcast and Satellite TV stations, and Radio stations are government owned. Major newspapers are also owned by the government, and their top officials are appointed by the government. All these channels are used to paint an unrealistic rosy picture of Egypt, such as democracy has never been so good, economy is booming, freedom is practiced, ...etc. This continued propaganda of brain washing has been going on since the 1952 revolution to date.

d. Corruption:

Corruption abounds at all levels in the society. From favoritism, to bribes for government services, to abuse of power by many officials and their families. The law has become theoretical, and will not help those who suffer from injustice because of corruption. Law has become nominal, and the exception is the rule.

e. Economical:

An Economic crisis has been a fact in Egypt for the last 5 decades. The day to day life of the average citizen has suffered going from bad to worse all the time. Whenever a glimpse of economic reform offers some hope for an imporved standard of living, it has proved to be very short lived and followed by severe recession for a long time (e.g. Post-INFITA7 in Sadat days, Post-Ganzoury reforms). The economic problem takes on lots of form, inflation, rising price for dollars, reactionary measures by government (e.g. re-establishing a Black Market)

f. Infrastructure:

Egypts increasing population, and internal immigration from rural areas to the cities contribute to an ailing infrastructute. Solutions to these problems may include moving the capital (and government) to a place other than Cairo and the present big cities. Also improving the standard of living and services, and creating jobs (e.g. small industry) in the village will make the village more productive and encourage people to stay there.

g. Law and Order:

The constitution is basically a good document (with a few exceptions). The issue we see is that there is a big gap between what is said and what is applied. This reality gap is true in the constitution and the civil and criminal laws. Both offer solutions to some of the problems we face, but they are rarely applied in practice. Moreover, the legal process is a lengthy, expensive and tortuous one, that no one wants to use the law to get what is rightfully theirs.

The police, like many government divisions, suffers from inefficiency, and often corruption to be effective. It is also used as a weapon by the government against those who are perceived as a threat by the government, no matter how peaceful they are.

Special branches in the police and legal system has grown, such as State Security Intelligence (MABA7ES AMN EL DAWLA) and its corresponding courts, where trials are fast track, and there is no appeal process.

There is a rift between the people and the police (which is a part of a bigger rift between the government and the governed), each seeing the other as an enemy rather than an ally.

Meanwhile, the level of crime has risen. This means the non-political crimes that threaten the average citizen more than anything else (e.g. burgularly, car theft, ...etc.).

We feel that the legal system has focused on policing opinions rather than policing crime, which is ignored.

Conclusion:

All these problems feed from each other in a "vicious cycle".

where one bad thing causes the next, and so on, until the original cause gets caused by other causes in the cycle. We need to break this cycle in several places before improvement can be seen (and sustained) to any considerable degree.

Egypt Reform Home